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CONVENTION 

BETWEEN THE 

UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN 



PROTECTION 
OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 



SIGNED AT WASHINGTON. AUGUST 16. 1916 

RATIFICATION ADVISED BY THE SENATE, AUGUST 29. 1916 

RATIFIED BY THE PRESIDENT, SEPTEMBER I. 1916 

RATIFIED BY GREAT BRITAIN. OCTOBER 20, 1916 

RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 7, 1916 

PROCLAIMED, DECEMBER 8, 1916 




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WASHINGTON 
1917 



Monoffraph 




3« of D, 
JAN 9 1917 






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By the President of the United States of America. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas a Convention between the United States of America and 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the protection 
of migratory birds in the United States and Canada was concluded 
and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries at Washington, on 
the sixteenth day of August, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, 
the original of which Convention is word for word as follows : 

Whereas, Many species of birds in the course of their annual migra- 
tions traverse certam parts of the United States and the Dominion of 
Canada; and 

Whereas, Many of these species are of great value as a source of 
food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage 
plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both 
the United States and Canada, but are nevertheless in danger of 
extermination through lack of adequate protection durmg the nesting 
season or while on their way to and from their breeding grounds ; 

The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British 
Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, being desirous of 
saving from mdiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation 
of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, 
have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which 
shall effectively accomplish such objects and to the end of concluding 
a convention for this purpose have appointed as their respective 
Plenipotentiaries : 

The President of the United States of America, Robert Lansing, 
Secretary of State of the United States; and 

His Britanic Majesty, the Right Honorable Sir Cecil Arthur Spring 
Rice, G. C. V. O., K. C. M. G., etc.. His Majesty's Ambassador Ex- 
traordinary and Plenipotentiary at Washington; 

Wlio, after having communicated to each other their respective 
fuU powers which were found to be in due and proper form, have 
agreed to and adopted the following articles : 

Article I. 

The High Contracting Powers declare that the migratory birds 
included in the terms of this Convention shall be as follows : 
1. Migratory Game Birds: 

(a) Anatidae or waterfowl, including brant, wild ducks, geese, and 

swans. 

(b) Gruidae or cranes, including little brown, sandhiU, and whoop- 

ing cranes. 

(c) Rallidae or rails, including coots, gallinules and sora and other 

raUs. 

73859—17 (3) 



{d) Limicolae or shorebirds, including avocets, curlew, dowitchers, 
godwits, knots, oyster catchers, phalaropes, plovers, sand- 
pipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, wiUet, woodcock 
and yellowlegs. 

(e) Columbidae or pigeons, including doves and wild pigeons. 

2. Migratory Insectivorous Birds: 

Bobolinks, catbirds, chickadees, cuckoos, flickers, flycatchers, 
grosbeaks, humming birds, kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, 
nighthawks or bull bats, nut-hatches, orioles, robins, 
shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers, titmice, thrushes, vireos, 
warblers, wax-wings, whippoorwills, woodpeckers and 
wrens, and all other perching birds which feed entirely or 
chiefly on insects. 

3. Other Migratory Nongame Birds: 

Auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, 
gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shear- 
waters, and terns. 

Article II. 

The High Contracting Powers agree that, as an effective means of 
preserving migratory birds there shall be established the following 
close seasons during which no hunting shall be done except for scien- 
tific or propagating purposes under permits issued by proper authori- 
ties. 

1. The close season on migratory game birds shall be between 
March 10 and September 1, except that the close season on the 
Limicolae or shorebirds in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and in 
those States of the United States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean 
which are situated wholly or in part north of Chesapeake Bay shall 
be between February 1 and August 15, and that Indians may take 
at any time scoters for food but not for sale. The season for hunting 
shall be further restricted to such period not exceeding three and 
one-half months as the High Contracting Powers may severally deem 
appropriate and define by law or regulation. 

2. The close season on migratory insectivorous birds shall con- 
tinue throughout the year. 

3. The close season on other migratory nongame birds shall con- 
tinue throughout the year, except that Eskimos and Indians may 
take at any season auks, auklets, guillemots, murres and puffins, and 
their eggs, for food and their skins for clothing, but the birds and eggs 
so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale. 

Article III. 

The High Contracting Powers agree that during the period of ten 
years next following the going into effect of this Convention, there 
shall be a continuous close season on the following migratory game 
birds, to wit: — 

Band-tailed pigeons, little brown, sandhill and whooping cranes, 
swans, curlew and all shorebirds (except the black-breasted and 
golden plover, Wilson or jack snipe, woodcock, and the greater and 
lesser yellowlegs) ; provided that during such ten years the close 



seasons on cranes, swans and curlew in the Province of British 
Columbia shall be made by the proper authorities of that Province 
within the general dates and limitations elsewhere prescribed in this 
Convention for the respective groups to which these birds belong. 

Article IV. 

The High Contracting Powers agree that special protection shall be 
given the wood duck and the eider duck either (1) by a close season 
extending over a period of at least five years, or (2) by the establish- 
ment of refuges, or (3) by such other regulations as may be deemed 
appropriate. 

Article V. 

The taking of nests or eggs of migratory game or insectivorous or 
nongame birds shall be prohibited, except for scientific or propagating 
purposes under such laws or regulations as the High Contracting 
rowers may severally deem appropriate. 

Article VI. 

The High Contracting Powers agree that the shipment or export 
of migratory birds or their eggs from any State or Province, during 
the continuance of the close season in such State or Province, shaU 
be prohibited except for scientific or propagating purposes, and the 
international traffic in any birds or eggs at such time captured, kiUed, 
taken, or shipped at any time contrary to the laws of the State or 
Provmce in which the same were captured, killed, taken, or shipped 
shall be likewise prohibited. Every package containing migratory 
birds or any parts thereof or any eggs of minatory birds transported, 
or ofi'ered for transportation from the Unlpd States into the Do- 
minion of Canada or from the Dominion of I Canada into the United 
States, shaU have the name and address of the shipper and an accu- 
rate statement of the contents clearly marked on the outside of such 
package. 

Article VII. 

Permits to kiU any of the above-named birds which, under ex- 
traordinary conditions, may become seriously injurious to the agri- 
cultural or other interests in any particular community, may be 
issued by the proper authorities of the High Contracting Powers 
under suitable regulations prescribed therefor by them respectively, 
but such permits shall lapse, or may be cancelled, at any time when, 
in the opinion of said authorities, the particular exigency has passed, 
and no birds killed under this article shall be shipped, sold or offered 
for sale. 

Article VIII. 

The High Contracting Powers agree themselves to take, or propose 
to their respective appropriate law-making bodies, the necessary 
measures for insuring the execution of the present Convention. 



Article IX. 

The present Coiiveiitioii shall be ratified by the President of the 
United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate thereof, and by His Britannic Majesty. The ratifications shall 
be exchanged at Washmgton as soon as possible and the Convention 
shall take effect on the date of the exchange of the ratifications. It 
shall remain m force for fifteen years and in the event of neither of 
the High Contracting Powers having given notification, twelve months 
before the expiration of said period of fifteen years, of its intention of 
terminating its operation, the Convention shall contmue to remain in 
force for one year and so on from year to year. 

In faith whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the 
present Convention m duplicate and have hereunto affixed their seals. 

Done at Washington this sixteenth day of August, one thousand 
nine hundred and sixteen. 

[seal.] Robert Lansing. 

[seal.] Cecil Spring Rice. 

And whereas the said Convention has been duly ratified on both 
parts, and the ratifications of the two Governments were exchanged 
in the City of Washington, on the seventh day of December, one 
thousand nine hundred and sixteen ; 

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Woodrow Wilson, President 
of the United States of America, have caused the said Convention 
to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and 
clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the 
United States and the citizens thereof. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affijced. 

Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of December in 
the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six- 
[seal.] teen, and of the Independence of the United States of 
America the one hundred and forty-first. 

Woodrow Wilson 
By the President: 

Robert Lansing, 

Secretary of State. 

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